Siege of Harfleur

The Siege of Harfleur (18 August-22 September 1415) was the first battle of the Lancastrian (and final) phase of the Hundred Years' War. King Henry V of England invaded France with an army of 2,000 men at arms and 6,000 bowmen, intending to recover his inheritance from France after his claims to his territory were mocked by Dauphin Louis, Duke of Guyenne (who sent Henry a "treasure" of tennis balls to bribe him into forgetting about his claims to duchies in France).

On 13 August 1415, King Henry landed at Chef-en-Caux in the Seine estuary, and he attacked the walled city of Harfleur, which was initially defended by 200 troops, later reinforced to 800. Thomas of Lancaster, 1st Duke of Clarence led part of the army to the east side of town, investing it. A French relief convoy carrying supplies was captured, and the English used twelve great guns to breach the walls. The town's commanders decided to call a truce with King Henry after he gave a threatening speech; he said, "If not, why, in a moment look to see the blind and bloody soldier with foul hand defile the locks of your shrill-shrieking daughters; your fathers taken by the silver beards, and their most reverend heads dash'd to the walls, your naked infants spitted upon pikes, whiles the mad mothers with their howls confused do break the clouds, as did the wives of Jewry at Herod's bloody-hunting slaughtermen. What say you? Will you yield, and this avoid, or, guilty in defence, be thus destroy'd?" The Governor responded by telling Henry that the Dauphin did not have the strength to raise the siege, and that the city was no longer defensible, so he yielded the town to the English army's mercy.